Podcast Rock City
 

Tim McPhate | KissFAQ

KissFAQ  has launched Back In The Solo Album Groove: The KISS Albums. 35 Years Later…, an ambitious multi-week retrospective dedicated to arguably the biggest milestone in KISStory: the 1978 KISS solo albums. Today, the site has published an interview with renowned bassist Will Lee, who played three tracks on Ace Frehley’s 1978 solo album: “Wiped-Out,” “I’m In Need Of Love” and “Ozone.”

The following are excerpts from Lee’s interview with KissFAQ’s Tim McPhate:

On a “She Loves You” moment during the album’s recording:

KF: By the time you came onboard for the album, several tracks were cut at the Colgate Mansion in Connecticut. So I believe the sessions you participated in would have been at Plaza Sound.

WL: That’s where we were. Plaza was really cool, it was right above Radio City Music Hall. It was in the same structure as that building. And I remember having this moment, I didn’t have this reference point at the time [because] I hadn’t really heard the story about the Beatles track “She Loves You.” But when they were at Abbey Road recording that in the studio, they were surrounded by women. And you can hear the confidence and the excitement and the testosterone that’s going on when you hear “She Loves You,” you can just imagine that [and] you can really understand where all that incredible spirit came from. There was energy surrounding the building. On the Ace project, we had the Rockettes looking in the window at our session.

KF: The Rockettes?

WL: Yeah, Radio City Music Hall had these chicks called the Rockettes. They’re like a bunch of chorus girls. They had heard what was going on upstairs, “Oh God, one of the guys from KISS is upstairs making an album!” So they’d come upstairs and you’d see them peering through the doors and it was like, “Yeah, this is our ‘She Loves You’ moment.”

On Ace Frehley’s attitude during the recording of his album:

KF:  It seems Ace took people by surprise because everyone — from the band to the label — wasn’t sure what he was going to bring to the table with his solo album. And Ace ended up turning in this great, guitar-heavy album with lots of attitude and some slamming tracks from the likes of yourself and Anton. And on top of that, he scored the lone hit from the solo albums with “New York Groove.”

WL: Yeah, I think he said, “Fuck everything. I’m going to just go for it.” And he did.

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